Impact of Pending Changes to Ontario's Employment Standards Act on SGFP Members The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 (Bill 148), announced by government May 30, includes a number of amendments to the Employment Standards Act that will affect Ontario's family doctors, both as physicians and employers.

While the most notable of these changes - increases in the minimum wage to $14 / hour on January 1, 2018 and $15 / hour on January 1, 2019 - may already be on the radar of our members, there are a number of other provisions that also merit attention. Unless noted below, most of these are effective January 1, 2018 and include:

• Annual adjustment to the hourly minimum pegged to inflation.
  
  
• Effective April 1, 2018: Equal pay for equal work: Part-time, casual, and temporary employees shall be paid the same as full-time employees when performing the same job, with exceptions for seniority or merit. To that end, employees can ask an employer or other employees for information about the wage rate paid to another employee for the purposes of determining compliance with equal pay/equal work.
  
  
• Employees with more than 3 months' of service can request in writing for the following: an increase or decrease in hours; a more flexible work schedule; or a change in work location without fear of reprisal.
  
  
• Employees can refuse to accept shifts if given less than four days' notice.
  
  
• If a shift is canceled within 48 hours of its start time, the employer must compensate the employee for three hours of pay.
  
  
• Employees will be entitled to three weeks' paid vacation after five years of service with the same employer. The vacation pay rate increases to 6% from the current 4%.
  
  
• Public holiday pay calculations will be simplified so that employees are entitled to their average regular daily wage.
  
  
• All employees will be entitled to 10 days of Personal Emergency Leave (PEL) per year, including two paid days. Paid days are available after the first week of employment. The reasons for PEL include illness, family illness, family death, emergency or family emergency, domestic or sexual violence or threat of domestic or sexual violence.
  
  
• Employers will no longer be able to request a sick note for employees taking Personal Emergency Leave.
  
  
• Employees will no longer have to contact their employer before filing a claim under the Employment Standards Act.
  
  
• Electronic agreements between employers and employees are valid.
  
  

In July, the OMA posted highlights of the proposed changes on its website which can be found here. An update will be available shortly from the OMA.

Moving forward, these changes to the ESA underscore the desirability of engaging in thorough recruitment practices and may cause some of our members to reconsider the relationship they may want to have with other members of their team (e.g. employer vs co-worker vs contractor).

Solo Family Doctors Only! Please Complete This Brief Survey

At the December meeting of the Section Executive, the following questions were raised:

• How will solo family doctors, regardless of practice model, be able to comply with expectations associated with implementation of Bill 41, the Patients First Act?
  
  
• How many SGFP members will this affect?
  

The following brief survey, AVAILABLE HERE, is designed to capture the unique challenges solo family doctors in any model may face. Your Section Executive believes this is important information to highlight to OMA Negotiations as it engages with the Ministry to arrive at the next Physician Services Agreement.

Please take the time to help us gather this important information.

2018 Elections

The Nominations period is now open and runs until January 26th for the OMA's 2018 single election period. This is your opportunity to submit your name for consideration and make your mark in any number of Section or District elected positions. More information on this year's election process can be found here.

Happy Holidays from Your Elected SGFP Leaders

Ontario's family doctors' needs and interests are ably represented by dozens of your colleagues who serve within the OMA as members of our Section's Executive and Standing Committees, SGFP delegates to OMA Council, and members of key Committees such as OMA Negotiations, OMA (Income) Relativity Review, etc.

From all of us to all of you: thank you for your support and we wish you a happy and safe holiday season.

Forward your views to us at sgfp@oma.org.

Sincerely,

Chair, Section on General and Family Practice